Labour has failed to submit the list of financial donations it received last year, as required by the party financing law, as it has yet to register with the Electoral Commission.
In contrast, the Nationalist Party, Alternattiva Demokratika, Moviment Patrijotti Maltin and Partit Demokratiku have all adhered to their deadlines to submit the list.
The law is intended to regulate donations and make political parties more accountable and transparent. The maximum donation that could be received from the same source was capped at €25,000 per year, with the Electoral Commission assuming the role of regulator.
The Financing of Political Parties Act was hailed by the Labour Party as a “historic breakthrough”, as it had been in the pipeline for several years under successive PN governments but never enacted.
The PL applied to register as a political party with the Commission last June. However, in Nov-ember, this newspaper revealed that the official recognition had been delayed due to clauses in the party’s statute flagged by the commission as being “out of line” with the law.
The Labour Party is waiting for the report template from the Electoral Commission
At the time, the PL informed the commission that it would make the necessary amendments to its statute in “the coming weeks” by convening a general conference.
However, three months on, the PL has still not rectified the situation, sources within the commission have told The Sunday Times of Malta.
The delay in registration is all the more embarrassing for Labour because the law obliges registered parties to deliver a “donations report” within 60 days of the annual reporting period to which it relates, in this case 2016.
Consequently, the deadline elapsed on March 1.
A PL spokesman confirmed that amendments to the statute had not yet been approved but gave no reason for the delay.
He said the party had been given “provisional” registration and that the required changes were set to be approved in a general conference next month. “When it comes to the Annual Donations Report for 2016, the Labour Party is waiting for the template of the said report from the Electoral Commission in order to submit the already-compiled data in the requested format,” the spokesman added.
However, a spokesman for the Electoral Commission clarified that the PL had not been sent the template simply because it was not among the registered parties.
Moreover, the commission spokesman made no mention of any political entity having “provisional” status, the term used by the PL to describe its current position.
In its reply to this newspaper, the commission noted that all four registered parties had met their 60-day deadline.
By law, any treasurer of a political party who “without reasonable excuse” fails to comply with this time frame is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of not more than €20,000.
Apart from the donations list, political parties are also obliged to present an annual statement of accounts, which is to be posted on the commission’s website for public scrutiny.
AD RAISES QUESTIONS
Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola said the PL has been boasting about the party finncing law yet had not registered as a political party, meaning that the PL was not subject to the law like the other political parties.
"We ask whether the Labour Party is stretching its registration as much as possible in order to avoid the limits imposed by the law on donations. Is the PL, in this way, able to continue cashing in on uncontrolled millions until the eve of the elections, those millions that had been agreed upon before the 2013 elections
"fir-raba' sular", as had been revealed by the today's Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, who was deputy leader in that period?"